Data Monday: Mobile App Usage

As the number of native mobile applications keeps growing, it's worth looking at how they get used. To that end, here's a few stats about people downloading apps and what what they do with them afterward.

Adult mobile users who have downloaded an app to their phone nearly doubled in the past two years – rising from 22% in September 2009 to 38% in August 2011. (source)

The average iOS device owner will download 83 apps in 2011 vs. 51 in 2010, a 61% increase year over year. (source)

The average smartphone user in the adds just 2.5 new apps per month. (source)

In May 2010, only about two-thirds (68%) of adults who had apps on their phones reported actually using them. (source)

In March 2011, 26% of all apps downloaded were opened only once and then never used again. 26% were used 11 times or more. Of the remaining 48% of apps: 13% are opened only twice, 9% are opened only three times, all the way to 2% that are opened 10 times and never again. (source)

38% iOS & Android users stick with an app after one month. 14% iOS & Android users stick with an app after six months. After 12 months, only 4% are left. (source)

Roughly half (51%) of mobile owners use a handful of apps at least once a week, while 17% report using no apps on a regular basis. Almost a third (31%) could be called app “power users” in that they use 6 or more. (source)

The top 10 Android apps account for 43% of all the time spent by Android consumers on mobile apps. The top 50 apps account for 61% of all time spent. With 250,000+ Android apps available at the time of this writing, that means the remaining 249,950+ apps have to compete for the remaining 39 percent of the pie. (source)